A Deathless Murder Chapter 9

Being too anxious to keep the appointment would seem fake, so Song Guiyi ignored the other party for the time being and gave him a cold shoulder. He decided to visit Xu Zhuyue first. He changed his clothes, put on a friendly smile, and tried to be as pleasing and harmless as a freshly baked bread. School was dismissed early on Friday, and Song Guiyi pretended to be a student who came back to school to visit his teacher. He asked around and found Xu Zhuyue's office. She had just finished supervising a student to finish dictation, and mistakenly thought that Song Guiyi was a student's parent, so she said, "Are you Wang Hong's parent? Wait a minute, I'll be there in a moment."

Song Guiyi said nothing, but took the opportunity to look at her. She was prettier than in the photo, and it was obvious that the biggest use of ID photos was to undermine self-esteem. But this was indeed her, and the mole on her chin was proof. She was dressed in a standard teacher's style, stable but boring, with her hair tied up in a bun, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and her lips pursed in a serious manner.

Song Guiyi waited until the last student left and they were the only two left in the office before he quickly walked forward and showed her the photos on his phone.

Xu Zhuyue turned pale with fear and dodged backwards, as if to escape. She said in a trembling voice: "What do you want to do? I will call the police."

Song Guiyi helped her sit down and said, "I am a police officer. I am investigating this case now. I hope you can cooperate and tell me what happened in detail."

Xu Zhuyue's expression softened a bit, but she was confused. "Isn't he in jail?"

Song Guiyi asked, "Are you talking about Wang Zhaonian?"

Xu Zhuyue nodded, her voice still trembling, like pus being squeezed out of a wound, "Yes, I met him online. We went to eat after we met, and I drank some water and felt dizzy for some reason. When I woke up, I was in the hotel, and when I woke up, I had no clothes on."

Song Guiyi was not good at comforting people, so he could only say dryly: "You are very unfortunate, but life is made up of random misfortunes. Anyway, it's not your fault. Misfortune is like rain, spreading to the world."

"Are you really a police officer?"

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that I will keep my mouth shut and resolve the matter. You can trust me. Go on. I'm a private investigator. There's another victim who asked me to investigate him, but he suddenly disappeared."

"Why did he come out again?" Xu Zhuyue glanced at him, half believing and half doubting. Now that things had come to this, she could no longer hide it. "He later found me and asked me to send him money. If I couldn't, he would send the photos to everyone around me. I sent him money twice, the first time was 5,000 yuan, and the second time was 8,000 yuan. Later, I really had no money, so he asked me to borrow money. I really had no choice but to tell my parents, and they accompanied me to report to the police. The police said that there was not enough evidence to file a R@p3 case, so they filed a case of extortion."

"when did it happen?"

"Last March, he was sentenced to more than two years."

"Then he was probably released early. Now he's back to his old ways. But there's good news. He's missing. He might be dead. You don't have to worry about retaliation. But first I want to ask, where were you at 8pm last Thursday?"

"I'm grading homework at home. Are you doubting me?"

"It's just a formality. So your parents can vouch for you. One more question. Do you know any of his other victims?"

Xu Zhuyue said firmly: "No, I don't know any of them. I've never even seen them."

Song Guiyi knew she was lying, because if there were multiple victims in a case, the victims would have to appear in court as witnesses when the prosecution was filed. At least they had seen each other in court. But he did not expose her, but only gave her his contact information and left with the same mercy as when he came.

In the evening, he told these words to Li Su, and she agreed, saying, "Although lying is suspicious, it is unlikely that she is the murderer. From the perspective of criminal psychology, murder is an explosive behavior. For the original offender, if lynching was not considered at the beginning, as time goes by, the fear will be greater than the anger. Even if she has the courage to kill someone, she doesn't have the courage to kill him."

Song Guiyi didn't comment, "I want to go to that bar again tomorrow during the day, do you want to come with me?"

Li Su smiled bitterly, "Did you forget? I have to attend a wine appreciation party on Saturday and leave tomorrow morning."

Song Guiyi nodded nonchalantly, carefully putting away the dim look in her eyes. Li Su got up, went back to the bedroom to change her clothes, patted Song Guiyi on the shoulder, smiled sweetly and said, "Let me show you my dress for tomorrow, and tell you something interesting, as a consolation prize."

Li Su was dressed elegantly, in a rose-colored dress, the silk cascading down like the rays of the setting sun, falling over her calves, revealing only a slender ankle. Turning around, she revealed a small part of her back, the concavity of her spine faintly visible in the folds. She wore no extra jewelry, only a pearl necklace, which tempted the eye to fall on the back of her neck, which was pale.

Song Guiyi wanted to say that it was nothing, but he happened to meet Li Su's eyes, and he was inexplicably nervous, choked, and began to burp. Li Su smiled evilly to help him breathe, and asked knowingly: "Are you jealous? Are you unhappy that I dress so nicely to meet other men?"

Song Guiyi awkwardly pushed her hand away, opened a can of Coke, tilted his head back and drank it, burped, fighting poison with poison. He said expressionlessly: "You are too self-indulgent. What is that interesting thing you just mentioned? Tell me quickly, I will go home after you finish speaking."

Li Su smiled slyly and asked, "Do you know anything about wine?"

Song Guiyi replied: "Yes, I learned that wine is not good to drink."

Li Su smiled, fiddling with the hem of her belt, tying it up and loosening it, "That's enough, but it wouldn't hurt to learn more. Wine collection is a big business in China. On the one hand, it's for drinking, but more importantly, in the same circle, people with status get to know each other. So many people buy a lot of good wine to hold wine tastings in order to get into the circle. Each bottle of wine is expensive, but have you ever thought about what would happen if you bought fake wine?"

Song Guiyi said: "It would be quite embarrassing."

Li Su smiled and said, "You underestimate the social circle. It's like the stock market. Reputation is everything. Once you become a laughing stock, you will be completely kicked out of the mainstream circle, not to mention that selling fake wines costs a lot of money. Generally, the wine circle will hold auctions regularly, and a bottle of wine ranges from 2,000 to 50,000 US dollars. These wines are usually authenticated by auction institutions, but this authentication is not strict."

Song Guiyi said: "That means it has enough moisture."

"If you want to accept bribes, you can also use this method, auction a bottle of grape wine and let someone buy it at a high price. However, this method is quite troublesome, and it is usually done through art auction channels. Don't ask me how I know this." Li Su's smile was somewhat secretive, "Let's talk about wine again. If the seller has a high status in the wine industry, many people will chase his reputation to bid. The organizer of this wine tasting is such a person, named Song Chen Mun, the son of a wealthy Chinese businessman in Singapore. He will be at all important auctions, and as long as he likes the wine, he will buy it no matter how expensive it is. After buying it, he will hold a tasting to entertain people, and each tasting can cost at least hundreds of thousands of dollars. Therefore, he doesn't invite many people, and they are all recommended. You have to work hard to get into his circle."

Song Guiyi said: "It seems that he is a person like Shi Chong."

Li Su narrowed his eyes, his expression turned mocking, "Then his building might have collapsed earlier. This Song Chen Mun is a friend of Li Zhongping. Li Zhongping recommended him an auction channel, which allowed him to sell his millions of wine collection. As for why this person has so many good wines, he explained that his family has a personal relationship with the owner of a winery in Burgundy. What a coincidence, I happen to have a friend of a friend who can contact this winery. I sent an email to inquire, and the owner of the winery said he didn't know such a person."

Song Guiyi interrupted: "You also speak French?"

"A little bit, just enough to send emails."

This was of course a self-deprecating statement. Song Guiyi felt sad when he heard it. He had no talent for language learning. The standard Japanese textbook he had bought was used to cook instant noodles for two years.

Li Su continued: "I also got a wine list. It's very interesting that a winery produced 6 bottles of wine, but Song Chen Mun sold 8 bottles."

Song Guiyi said, "You mean he's selling fake wine?"

Li Su took out a cork and said, "We'll know tomorrow whether it's fake or not. The printing process on the corks of this winery is special, with the year and font name printed on them. The font is a sans serif font designed by a professional. In other words, as long as this cork is different from the one in my hand, it's basically fake."

At this point, Song Guiyi knew that she had already made up her mind, and he was too lazy to persuade her. After all, even if Li Zhongping really suffered, it was more or less what he deserved. He just casually asked: "What if it is really fake wine?"

Li Su said briskly: "It will be ruined. Not only will Song Chen Mun be ruined for fraud, but Li Zhongping, as his friend, will also lose his reputation, whether he knew about it or not. The victims, who foolishly bought fake wine, will also become a laughing stock."

"It's really not easy to be a superior person. If you make a little mistake, you're doomed."

Li Su said seriously: "The social circle is like a filter paper, filtering you layer by layer. Every mistake you make will be left on the filter paper and be evaluated by others. What is finally filtered out is your complete value."

Song Guiyi said: "You really have a hard time. But do you hate Li Zhongping so much?"

Li Su sneered, "If he offends you, he offends me. He doesn't deserve it, and I will make him understand this truth. He likes to teach people a lesson, mansplain. Then I will teach him a lesson, for free."

Tear off the gentle and elegant face of the eldest lady, she is still a petty person in her bones, and she will never let go of any grudge. She is happy to see others fall into disgrace and fall into the stinking ditch, and she will happily applaud beside them. It is certain that she is not a good person, but she is not a heinous criminal. Of course, Song Guiyi doesn't care, he still likes her, but he thinks she should be more careful and not offend people so easily. Song Guiyi said: "What if he knows it was you who did it? Be careful that he will retaliate against you."

"He doesn't have that brain. If he did, he would have been promoted long ago. But you're right. To prevent future troubles, we must make sure he can't turn over. This amount of fraud is enough to get him sentenced to more than ten years." Li Su bit her lip and smiled, "But I still learned something from him. The tricks that finance guys use to pick up girls are also good for picking up you. Do you want to go skiing in Hokkaido with me this year, or see the scenery in the Aegean Sea?"

"That's it? I'm not interested. I'd better eat your blueberries."